Morphological, structural, and electrical studies of butyl esters plasticized poly (methyl methacrylate) electrolytes / Nurul Dhabitah Basri

Several modifications have been used to overcome the disadvantages of PMMA electrolytes, which are brittle and have low ionic conductivity at room temperature. These modifications include adding filler, blending with other polymers, and adding plasticisers. Plasticizers, for example, have been discovered to improve ionic conductivity. However, they, particularly phthalate plasticisers, pose a number of environmental and health risks. Therefore, In this study, a new series of butyl esters-based plasticizers (BEBPs) were introduced which synthesized from different length of saturated fatty acids such as butyric acid (C4), caprylic acid (C8), lauric acid (C12), myristic acid (C14), palmitic acid (C16), stearic acid (C18). BEBPs were synthesized by esterification reaction between the acids with n-butanol and sulphuric acid as catalyst. PMMA/PPs electrolytes were prepared at various percentages of PP (1% (PEPP1), 3% (PEPP3), 5% (PEPP5), and 7% (PEPP7)) and the solvent casting method was used successfully incorporate non-volatile BEBPs into PMMA electrolytes. All BEBPs include butyl butyrate (PB), butyl caprylate (PC), butyl laurate (PL), butyl myristate (PM), butyl palmitate (PP) and butyl stearate (PS)) were successfully characterized using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) analyses. The important peak of esters was visible at 1283-1281 cm-1 in FTIR spectra.